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The Dark Side of Blogging

Blogging, like most things in life not only has a good side, but it has a dark side as well.. Today I want to talk about that dark side, how I experienced it and how it has influenced me and how/why I blog.

Just like cute little Darth there, blogging has some major perks. Maybe not as major as cookies, but they are still pretty enticing!

When I first started getting followers on my WordPress blog, I was completely addicted! I had notifications blowing up my phone, new posts, comments, likes. Everything! And every time my phone would make a notification sound, I was checking it. I didn’t know if it was a supply job email or a blog email so I just had to check, and since I already had the phone in my hand, why not read the comment and reply?

Like I said, I was addicted.

Then, during the Blogging U course, one of our assignments was to set up a “contact me” page. I liked this idea – people who didn’t feel like commenting on a post or whatever could send me a personal message. Not many people use it, but I still like that it’s there. One of the main problems with this was that it went straight to my personal email, but I’m trying to keep my name/face out of my blogging experience (even though basically every detail of my life is on here). So I created an email just for this blog – which helped my addiction a lot. I didn’t connect my blog email to the app on my phone, so I didn’t get notifications unless I was near a computer to check. Slowly, my addiction to alerts lessened. I can’t say it’s gone completely now, it’s still something I’m working on, but at least it’s not as bad as it used to be! That little orange circle still makes me excited!

Another thing I was completely obsessed with at first was my stats page. I needed to check it all the time! How many people were reading my blog? Where are they from? How many followers do I have?! I was sucked right in! Thankfully now I know that the stats page isn’t a true reflection of how many people are reading/viewing my blog so I know not to get too wrapped up in it.

I always say I have an addictive personality (thank goodness I have never been into drugs or alcohol!) and blogging really brought that out in me.

Reading blogs can also take up a lot of your time. I’ve made the choice that I read new posts in the morning. I get posts emailed directly to my blogging email, so when I am having breakfast, with a cup of coffee, I can sit and read all the posts that have been uploaded by those people I follow. After lunch, I just stop reading posts and get to them the next morning.

Another dark side of blogging would be the contests and courses. From November-April I pretty much did at least one Blogging U course or a contest each month. It was nice to have a direction for my blog and my writing. But In March, I was burnt out! I had to take a break from my blog because I was starting to resent it being there. I needed some time to just figure out what I wanted to be writing about, and not be so concerned about followers/likes/views. It was hard, but it was needed. After I finished the very popular A to Z challenge in April, I took May as kind of a break. I didn’t post every day, I took time off to just recharge my writing.

One more dark side of blogging: the people.

Now I have been so very very blessed that amazing people have stumbled across my little slice of crazy here. I have amazing followers, and I follow some amazing blogs. I have never been the subject of any hateful comments, and I hope that none of my comments have come across as anything but supportive and loving! Maybe a little bit silly at times… But I have reblogged a few posts from other bloggers that have gotten some backlash and that kind of sucks. It’s sad when other people will read a post and just completely devalue another person’s experiences because they haven’t been through the same thing or they don’t believe it could have ever happened that way.

I can honestly say I’ve only had one bad experience with a fellow blogger, and even that wasn’t really so bad. I was approached by a blogger who was doing an interview series on her blog – she wanted to know if I would participate. I took the time to read some of her posts, getting a sense of her style of writing and trying to decide if her site fit what I’m trying to do with my writing. It did. Her posts were well written, no crazy grammar mistakes or editing problems, she was sensitive, and shared her own personal story openly and without shame. I agreed and we began emailing about the interview. I’d like to say we became fast friends.

I was to be the second in the series, and she emailed me her questions – which were great questions! She promised she wouldn’t be changing my answers in any way, and she wanted to make sure I used my “writing voice” when answering (she said it was sassy). I took the time and went over the questions, putting my own personal silliness into the answers. She was happy with what I sent back and said she was going to work hard to get it up as soon as possible.

The day finally came when she had it up! I was so excited!! I went over to her blog and it wasn’t like anything she had ever posted before. Each paragraph was a different colour which made it very difficult to read, she was inserting her own commentary around my words (which she had done in previous interviews as well!) but was trying way too hard to be funny about it and ended up with so many mistakes and was just awkward to read. It was kind of a flop, but I supported it. She had kept her word and didn’t change any of my answers so it was all good. I posted a comment on the page (as she had requested), reblogged it and shared a link on my own blog.

A week later, I was informed by a follower trying to read it, that the link wasn’t working. I checked it out, and so it was. I went to the original website and the page no longer existed. The other interviews in the series were still there, just mine was gone. I emailed the woman who had interviewed me asking what had happened, no reply. She had even unfollowed my blog as well as some of her “friends in real life” bloggers that I had started to follow as well. It was all very strange, and to this day I still have no idea what happened.

Well there ya go folks: The dark side of blogging as seen by me! It’s a scary place out there – stay safe 😉

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20 thoughts on “The Dark Side of Blogging”

Oh, blogging definitely has a dark side. Sometimes I feel like it’s a pretty huge dark side… I have an addictive personality, too. Nothing bad. At this time. 😛 No, seriously… never anything so bad! I can identify with many parts of this post. I still put a bit too much pressure on myself to post daily… that is part of my addiction. And your interview story — I haven’t experienced anything quite like that but I have had a few blog-friends disappear, cease communication with me — and a couple of them were (I thought) very good blog-friends. It went from daily communication (comments, emails, etc.) to nothing in an instant. Of course, me being who I am, I assume it’s my fault… that I must have said or done something. But I’ve never been able to figure out what it could have been… (so, it’s probably not me… I’m just paranoid…) 🙂

yeah I feel the same way about loosing certain blogging friends. Especially this lady who did the interview. I assumed it was something that I did but can’t ever seem to put a finger on it. Oh wells! I still have the most amazing followers 😀

This is a very interesting piece. I think everything has a dark side (not always a bad thing). I haven’t had a bad other blogger experience (yet😨) but saw someone being mean to someone else once in comments and thought it pretty out of line. I love your blog btw. Funny, true and the topics alter which I like best😊

I, too, got addicted. It started with that first Blogging U course. I had to take the app off my phone as it was starting to affect my day to day life. I met a lot of great people! I loved the sense of community! Nobody judged my excessive use of exclamation marks!

I’m so sorry you had such a bad but not really bad experience. 😦 That was so not cool of her to take the post down.

I have thankfully never had the app on my phone haha! On my ipad yes but since I don’t really use it too much it hasn’t been an issue. It’s so easy to be sucked right into it all – those blogging U courses are a little bit evil haha.

Loved your Dark Side blog. Here’s hoping I will never have that happen to me! I just wish all my readers on Facebook would follow my blog. I run the blog on Facebook too so that probably explains it all. Keep up the good work! Check me out too and your opinions matter to me! http://www.danabicksauthor.com

It is interesting to read your experience of the bizareness that occurs online.

Mostly I find people that read my blog and Facebook page posts supportive. I do occasionally, find myself being trolled! Mostly recently a few days ago and I responded with a few sharp retorts – then thought to myself “why am I wasting my time and energy” and simply deleted them. The Facebook page is about raising awareness of a serious topic, and I have spent many hours and my own money in paid promotions to spread the word. I therefore am not about to tolerate idiots suggesting that I am fake. Having a different opinion is fine – trolling = delete.